All areas of sports be it artistic or not change and rules also change along the way. Often changes happen due to a problem or an accident. So dancing would be no different. I think it is a good thing that things change. The underlying principles are still the same it is the presentation that has change. Richard Gleave introduced more physiological component to the sport/dance.

Thank goodness for change!

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Dance is a delicate balance between perfection and beauty. ~Author UnknownDance Forum

I think ballroom dance has become very resistant to change. Basically, if you don't do it the way its been codified then you are wrong. Expression is really limited to emotions not actions.. The danger there is that it will be seen as a dead art form and new creative dancers will go elsewhere.

Must think about this a while before fully answering, BUT ... I think that ee's comment is exactly where there's the most vigorous debate, in a lot of dance forms other than just competitive ballroom. (Several difference swing dances and AT come to mind.) There are the purists who think that, at some point in time, the dance reached its peak and should remain in the form, frozen in time. Then you have the proponents of evolution.

It's amazing how passionate people can be on either side of the argument.

That is a very good question. I was thinking about it for quite awhile, but for a different reason.

I was thinking about evolution of dancing, pushing dancing further. At what point is it too much? At what point do we say that, for example, the ballroom dancing that these couples are doing is no longer ballroom?

Just for clarification, M, do you mean ballroom in the layman's sense, or do you mean ballroom as opposed to Latin dances?

That is a very good question. I was thinking about it for quite awhile, but for a different reason.

I was thinking about evolution of dancing, pushing dancing further. At what point is it too much? At what point do we say that, for example, the ballroom dancing that these couples are doing is no longer ballroom?

Just for clarification, M, do you mean ballroom in the layman's sense, or do you mean ballroom as opposed to Latin dances?

Now it is my turn to be confused...do you mean the difference as ballroom = standard + latin and ballroom = standard? If this was the question, I origianlly meant ballroom = standard, since just about everyone uses it on this forum (though I use the word ballroom as standard + latin). I would like to separate standard and Latin, since to me, they are two genres.